This is so far the longest ride I took in the land of beauty, and a first companion ride as well with the so far highest elevation of over 1.2 kilometers.
We have a whatsapp group for cyclists in the institution. This Friday, I asked in that group if there is any plan for group ride. Only one guy, Robin M R, responded saying yes. I expected some notification in the group on Saturday as usually they will post some info, but got nothing. So, I planned like to reach a nearby small waterfalls which would be around fourty kilometers in total.
To my surprise, I got a text from Robin asking for the plan to me directly on Saturday night. We talked and decided to do a one hundred kilometers ride today, starting around 5 AM circling around Nedumangad, Aryanad, Vithura and back to campus. I have a trouble of leaving the campus at 5 AM as the rules here stating to go out only after 6 AM.
I told Robin that I will join with him at Chullimanoor and continue the ride with him. But, to my luck or I don’t know, He was late today morning. I went to Chullimanoor, waited for him. He called and said he was late and will come in 30 minutes. I decided to meet him in the opposite by riding on the road towards Palode through where he comes.
Like planned, I met him and we started riding together. One reason I said I was lucky is that, he is kind of talkative. We had quite a chitchat on the entire ride. He took some pics of me which are good. He told his storyline on the way and exchanged our views about it.
We reached Aryanad and started to take deviation towards Vithura. The road there was excellent!. Covered by tall trees on the sides, with Sun rising inbetween them, slightly chill weather, it is great. But, unfortunately I couldn’t take any photo of that place. I will go through that route again to get the feel completely.
While joining the route to Vithura, I found that the road we took is the road I went by mistake when I went to the Chittipara. It was nice and within some half hour, we reached Vithura. On the way I told him my todays plan which is to visit the waterfalls at Vithura, he showed the road to that place and told like if we can go till Ponmudi. This is my first ride to Ponmudi.
We decided to go to Ponmudi till the check post down hill and return. On the way, I have enjoyed many beautiful views. We crossed Meenmutty waterfalls, IISER entrance road and other on-the-way places. We decided to plan one day to Ponmudi and on return we can visit these places.
We reached Ponmudi and took some photos at the check post entry point and returned. In the return jouney, I travelled with him to his home location and then we split. After checking the map, I realised that the route I came through back to Chullimanoor after the split was the second route that I planned for my morning rides. It was great to experience.
Also I found people here to be friendly and talking well to strangers. Robin taught me a trick to follow during descent, which is to go on a fast gear so that when we deviate from the path we can pedal and come back to the track. It was a good advice I got. He also talked about some electrolytes powder available at Decathlon, so the next time when I go, I will pick it up and use it on such long rides.
Overall the ride was great, I reached campus by around 11:30 AM, bought food from the cafe and went to room. Yeah, we had breakfast in one of the shops at Vithura, which is just a parota and two eggs for me. It was perfect.
I realized that I wouldn’t have enjoyed as this much if I went to that waterfalls as I planned earlier. Robin told that he is being in contact with some riders here who will plan some future rides. He told that he will notify me about the rides when they are organized.
It is true that when we have a good plan, the nature has a better plan for us. It is a great day of my life. Below are the photos and videos that were taken during the ride.
The photo that was seen in the thumbnail of this riding hobby was taken in the ride only.
Below is the Strava embedding of this ride.
